The Secrets of a Dark Heart
by Chrmdpoet
Summary: Regina remains with the group rather than running off on her own, compelled by Emma's pleading gaze. They enter the Echo Cave together and each is made to reveal a dark secret. Regina's own secret is one that not only exposes her deepest fear and vulnerability, but also causes Emma to realize the depth of her own feelings for the dark-hearted former queen. Based on episode 3x06.


**A/N: My version of what should have happened in 3x06 had Regina remained with the group and been present for the little adventure into the cave. ****Enjoy! XO-Chrmdpoet**

The Secrets of a Dark Heart

"The tracks lead directly into that cave," Mary Margaret said as she halted just outside an ominous looking cave, having lit the path of tracks with her dim lantern as they followed, seeking the prison where Pan had hidden Emma's long-absent ex and Henry's biological father. "This must be where Pan is keeping Neal."

Everyone filed in behind the pixie-haired woman with both Emma and Regina stepping a bit off to the side, though no one but the former Mayor seemed to notice the complete look of trepidation that flashed across Emma's features. Regina said nothing, though, not wanting to call attention to the blonde's obvious discomfort as she herself was feeling rather awkward and uncomfortable, having nearly given up and left the not-so-charming group just a few hours earlier. Had it not been for that desperate, pleading look in Emma's eyes, she most likely would have, but something in those emerald depths had latched onto her, pulling her back in and forcing her to remain with the group.

"If the cave is some sort of prison, why aren't there any guards posted to stop us?" David posed as he stepped forward to stand beside his wife, hand firmly resting atop the hilt of his sword.

"'Cause this prison doesn't require guards," Hook breathed nervously, almost disappointedly as realization sunk into his eyes and he stepped forward, between husband and wife, his eyes darting between them before settling once more on a cave he knew all too well. He sighed heavily and in a breathy whisper said, "Echo Cave."

"You know it," Mary Margaret voiced, not a question because the answer was obvious without asking.

"All too well," Hook answered, still staring into the dark mouth of the cave as everyone fidgeted silently behind him, not liking the despair and slight fear detectable in his voice. He then turned and pierced Mary Margaret with a gaze that communicated the reasoning behind his trepidation long before he ever breathed a heavy sigh and admitted, "I've lost half my crew inside those rock walls. The only way to rescue someone from inside is to reveal a secret."

David glanced nervously at his wife as Hook's words sank into him like the traitorous tip of his own sword, because he had been harboring quite the secret from his family for days now.

"A secret," Mary Margaret reiterated, slightly confused as to why revealing a secret would be such a heavy issue. "That's all?"

"The darkest secret," Hook clarified strongly before taking a heavy breath and saying, "Echo Cave derived its name from an old saying, 'The deeper the lie, the more truth in its echo.'"

Emma hung her head heavily at that, too caught up in her own sudden discomfort and fear upon hearing this that she failed to notice the way Regina's entire body had begun to go rigid. The more Hook revealed about the nature and function of Echo Cave, the more completely and utterly terrified the former Mayor became; the more terrified they _both _became. Neither was keen to reveal any of their secrets, let alone their darkest.

"The cave demands that you reveal a truth about yourself," Hook continued, "a secret you would never admit to anyone."

"This is ridiculous," Emma suddenly interjected, unable to hold it in any longer.

"I second that," Regina piped up, eyes darting uncomfortably around as she forced herself not to make eye contact with any of the group. The second Hook had revealed that they would each need to disclose their darkest secret, Regina had suddenly felt like all of her secrets had bubbled to the surface, and if she looked anyone in the eye, they would be able to see them all. It was daunting. She didn't want _anyone _knowing _any _of her secrets, and yeah…she had a lot of them.

As far as she was concerned, secrets existed for a reason, and it wasn't always to drive people away or hurt people or even to protect them. Sometimes, secrets were to protect yourself. Sometimes secrets were the only things you had to hold onto when life just stripped everything else away. Sometimes a secret was nothing—just a feather you could easily let go of and it would float gently away from you. Sometimes, though, a secret was everything—part of your very flesh or part of your heart, and if you let it go, then it would rip away part of your body, a vital part, a part that would leave you exposed and raw and vulnerable to the infection and invasion of other people and emotions you'd spent your entire life guarding yourself from. So, no, Regina was not keen on spilling any of her secrets; not a damn one.

"Don't kill the messenger, love," Hook said as he grimaced at Emma's remark.

"Even if we spill our guts," Emma carried on, ignoring Hook's remark, "how do we know Neal's still alive in there?"

"Because this is what Pan wants," Hook told her, lifting his eyebrows as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. He motioned toward the cave and said, "He wants us to rescue him."

"Why?" David asked, confused.

"So that we reveal our secrets," Hook answered again as if it was obvious. "He believes once we do, our secrets will destroy us."

Everyone stared worriedly at the open mouth of the cave as Hook's words settled painfully inside each of their hearts, filling them each with the heavy burden of choosing a truly dark and desperate secret to reveal, knowing how it could destroy them or make them vulnerable in the worst way. Tears pricked terribly at Regina's eyes as she fought back her own fear, but it kept coming. It spilled into her cells and refused to dissipate, because she _knew_, she had _no _doubt that revealing her deepest secret certainly would destroy her. It would make her more vulnerable than ever, and weakness had never been a strong suit of Regina's. She had raged against it for decades, because every ounce of weakness she had ever shown in her entire life had always, _always _been used against her; more than once by some of the very people standing amongst her just outside the daunting cave.

After several long moments of uncomfortable fidgeting and heavy sighs, though, Hook stepped forward and motioned for them all to follow. Mary Margaret and David stepped in after him, leaving only Emma and Regina lagging behind. They glanced nervously at one another, before Emma quietly asked, "Are you okay with this?"

"Of course I'm not okay with this," Regina snapped at her. "You know who I am, who I was, the things I've done! You know the kind of secrets I most likely have, Emma, and you know damn well that anything I say in that cave will be ammunition for your self-righteous parents or even for _you _later on down the line. And for what? To save your ex-boyfriend, whom I owe nothing to and know nothing about, and whom has been nothing but a severe pain in my ass and yet _another _wedge between my son and I? _Obviously_, Emma, I am _NOT _okay with any of this!"

Regina's words felt like a heavy blow to the chest, leaving Emma slightly breathless as despair and guilt crept into her and coated her heart painfully. She knew that Regina was right about all of it, and she hated that fact. She hated the idea of having to spill one of her own secrets in that cave, but she hated even more that Regina would have to spill one of hers, because it was true that the former Mayor owed Neal nothing; that if anything, Neal owed _her _for Regina allowing him to spend some time with Henry, whom he had no rights to, despite the fact that she knew it would only push them further apart.

Emma sighed shakily, took a step toward Regina, and said, "Look Regina, I promise you, whatever you say in there, I won't use it against you; not now, not ever. I know you don't owe Neal anything; quite frankly, neither do I, but I really feel like he might be able to help us get to Henry; or at least, he might be able to help us off this island once we get Henry back. If he can, isn't it worth it?"

Regina's melted chocolate eyes pierced into emerald as she watched the blonde curiously before quietly asking, "So, are you telling me that none of this grand rescue has anything to do with the fact that you're still in love with him?"

Emma was a bit taken aback at that, but she held her ground as she shook her head and said, "I feel a lot of things when it comes to Neal, but the only reason I'm making him a priority right now is because he might be the only one who can get us close enough to Henry to rescue him."

Regina was silent for only a moment, but when she saw nothing but sincerity the Savior's eyes, she nodded firmly, and said, "Okay. Lead the way."

* * *

They walked for what seemed like an hour, everyone silent as they made their way through the twisting paths of Echo Cave, before they entered into a massive open area. It was so large, in fact, that Regina was fairly positive that even a whisper would echo around its rock walls. _So much for muttering my secret quietly in the hopes that no one will hear_, she thought to herself as she sighed and listened to the way the sarcastic, heavy sound bounced around them all.

In the center of the room was a giant open ravine, so deep and so dark that none could see the bottom, and that was when they finally noticed the large cage perched on a tiny circle of rock stemmed in the center of the ravine. Everyone watched, unnerved as the figure inside the cage suddenly stirred, and then Neal's face appeared in the tiny cut-out square window of the cage and his voice loudly echoed, "Emma!"

The blonde let out a heavy breath as she slipped back a step and muttered, "Neal." She bumped into Regina as she stepped back and the former Mayor didn't even bother to move, only bringing her hands up and pressing them into Emma's back to steady her. Emma said nothing as she leaned against Regina's touch for only a second before stepping to the side and keeping her eyes fixed on the man in the cage.

Mary Margaret shook her head as her eyes took in the distance separating the group from Neal. "Must be a hundred feet across," she said.

"Even if we fashion some sort of rope, there's nothing to attach it to," David added as his eyes, too, scanned the ravine. "No way to swing over."

"So what do we do?" Emma asked nervously, though she already knew the answer.

Hook closed his eyes in defeat and answered her. "I told you what needs to be done," he said in a sigh. "Consider this the moment of truth, literally. Now, who wants to kick things off?"

Regina instantly shrank back, practically disappearing into the shadows of the path they'd only just appeared from, even as Emma chimed in and sarcastically asked, "So what, someone tells their secret and they sprout wings?"

"I don't know the particulars, only what I've been told," Hook said exasperatedly.

"Well, how do you know it'll work?" David asked.

Hook, tired of continually explaining and defending what he knew to be true of the cave, turned away from the rest of the group. He walked up to the ledge, let out a heavy sigh, and made a decision right then to reveal his own secret. "There's only one way to find out, I suppose," he said quietly. He then turned to face both Mary Margaret and David and admitted, "I kissed Emma."

Emma rolled her eyes dramatically as David angrily snapped, "You did what?!" and Mary Margaret put a placating hand on his chest and said, "David, now is _not _the time."

Emma sighed and said, "I already told Mary Margaret, so technically it's not a secret, but it was just a kiss. How's that your _darkest _secret?"

"It's what the kiss exposed," Hook explained. "My secret is…I never thought I'd be capable of letting go of my first love, my Mila." He choked on her name just a bit, which to Emma, practically screamed that he wasn't truly ready to let her go despite what he seemed to be implying now. "To believe that I could find someone else," he continued, "that is, until I met you."

Emma stood in shock at having actually heard him say the words she thought he would only imply, and completely unsure of what she should say in return, because how the hell do you tell someone who basically just told you that you were the only hope for love they'd had in centuries, that you didn't feel the same way? Before she even had a chance to open her mouth, though, the ground began to quake. Emma unconsciously threw out a hand and latched onto Regina's bicep, her instinct to protect the woman kicking in as it always did. They watched as a rock path punched its way outward from the perch of Neal's cage, extending not even a quarter of the way outward, but effectively proving that Hook's information had been correct. The secrets were the key.

Once the quaking ceased, Emma gently let go of Regina's arm, neither of them even thinking on the gesture as they stood in silence and waited for anyone but themselves to reveal the next secret. David then let out a sigh, stepped in front of his wife and said, "Uh, Mary Margaret, I—"

"No," Mary Margaret breathed, cutting him off, "me next." She seemed timid for only a moment before she just opened her mouth and let her inner, and what she believed to be her darkest secret, spill outward, a secret that she feared would hurt her child or somehow make her less of a mother. Regardless, she needed to say it, and now was the perfect opportunity. "Ever since the curse broke, since we found each other, since we found Emma, in all of that happiness, there's something that I haven't wanted to admit."

Her eyes nervously darted back and forth between her daughter's resigned features and her husband's confused expression before she took a deep breath and said, "Our daughter is a beautiful, smart, amazing woman whom I love very much and of whom I could not be more proud, but she's all grown up, and as much as I want to pretend I'm okay with that, I'm _not_. We missed it, David. What we have with her is unique, but it's not what I wanted…"

An all-encompassing ache bloomed in Regina's chest as she watched Emma's emerald eyes fill with despair, her gaze dropping to the stone floor of the cave. It seemed Emma completely tuned the pixie-haired woman out after those words, and Regina could practically see the blonde receding into some deep, dark place inside herself. She recognized the descent, because she had often made it herself. She knew Mary Margaret's words had stung Emma in ways that the blonde would never admit or probably never even be able to articulate, and Regina's heart ached for her in that moment, a feeling that surprised her every time it happened.

She had been becoming more and more accustomed to the affection and general care she felt toward Emma Swan, but she'd be lying to say it didn't still surprise her. It could be so subtle, like the comfort of a simple smile shared between them or when they actually managed to agree on something. It could also be grand and overwhelming, like when they inexplicably combined their magic and caused miraculous things to happen, things that Regina had yet to allow herself to think on for fear of what it might expose, or like when Emma would look at her and so obviously see past the defenses and the wicked labels to nothing more than a woman who honestly and deeply loved a son they sometimes stubbornly, sometimes comfortably shared.

When Regina finally snapped back into reality, she realized that everyone was staring at her, and she didn't have a clue as to what Mary Margaret or David or anyone else had confessed. _Shit, _she thought, _did Emma reveal her secret, and I missed it? _

Hook arched an eyebrow at her and said, "Everyone's revealed their secrets now, love, except you and Emma."

"Okay, so?" Regina snapped at the group, her eyes darting to Emma before jumping back to Hook. "Why do I have to go first? Rumple's spawn is _Emma's _ex, not mine. She should have to share her secret first. I shouldn't even be here."

"Regina…" Mary Margaret began, her voice making it very clear that she was revving up for another of her lectures, when Emma cut her off.

"No," the blonde said, her green eyes locking hard onto Regina's, but she didn't look angry at anything the woman had said. In fact, the former Mayor could see nothing but understanding in those emerald depths as if Emma had flashed back to the timid and vulnerable conversation they'd had just prior to entering the cave. "Regina's right," she continued. "It should be me."

Emma stood just in front of the group with her back to each of them as she stared out at the rock walkway that lacked only a large rectangle to be complete, a rectangle she knew lived in her own darkest secret. She breathed out a heavy sigh, locked gazes with the man who had long ago abandoned her to a wretched fate that should have been his, and said, "When I heard you might be here, that you might still be alive, I knew I should be happy, but I wasn't. I was terrified. I didn't understand why until now. From the moment I saw you in New York, from the instant you stepped back in my life, I knew…I knew I never stopped loving you. Before I even had a chance to take a breath, I lost you once more, and all that pain I had pushed down for all those years, it just came rushing back, and I didn't know if I could go through it again."

The blonde sighed heavily, tears building in her eyes as she admitted in a whispered echo, "I love you. I probably always will, but my secret…is that I was hoping this was a trick."

Regina watched Emma's back as she listened to the blonde's voice began to crack and her body just slightly trembled. It was painful to see Emma so vulnerable, painful and beautiful, and just almost too much; too much, because every word coming out of her mouth flashed Regina right back to the day she'd found Daniel in that stable, reanimated by the completely cruel science of Frankenstein. She hadn't believed it at first, and then there was hope, and then there was pain, and all she could think was that she wished it was a trick of her mind, because for the last thirty years of the curse, she had worked so hard at pushing all of that pain so far down that it didn't touch her. As soon as she'd seen him, though, writhing in agony and at times, a monster, all of that pain just came rushing back as Emma said, and it was just too much. Tears sprang into her own eyes as Regina's memories, paired with the sorrow in Emma's voice, ate away at her defenses.

"I was hoping you were dead, because it'd be easier for me to put you behind me," Emma continued through her tears, "than to face all the pain that we went through all over again."

As soon as the last word slipped from her lips, the ground rumbled once more and the last leg of the pathway punched itself into existence. Emma started to run forward, down the pathway and to the cage that still trapped Neal, but Hook quickly grabbed onto her arm to halt her. "You can't open the cage, love," he told her as she looked at him questioningly. He let go of her then and nodded toward Regina who had sunken even further into the shadows, her chin buried into her chest as she avoided eyes she knew to be boring into her. "Only a secret can."

"Regina…" Emma whispered, the feather-light word echoing as thunder in the massive, open space. She took several steps forward until she was right in Regina's personal bubble, her hand reaching out of its own accord. Her fingers slipped under the brunette's chin and gently pushed, persuading the woman to lift her head and look up at her.

When she finally did, the blonde let out a quiet, yet still echoing gasp as she saw the tears streaking the former mayor's cheeks, those melted chocolate eyes turned dark and stormy as they pleaded with Emma not to make her do this. Emma moved then, angling her body so as to block Regina from the view of her parents and Hook and give the woman just a bit more privacy, though she knew any words uttered from Regina's mouth would surely echo loud enough to be heard, no matter how quietly they were spoken. Still, she tried to make her as comfortable as possible as she shielded Regina and said, "Hey, it's okay. Just try to forget everything else and focus right here." She pointed to her own face. "It's just you and me, okay, and I already told you, I won't use anything you say against you. I promise you I won't, Regina."

Regina opened her mouth then, a soft almost guttural whimper escaping, which instantly had new tears spilling down her steadily reddening cheeks. Emma's heart was exploding in her chest for the fear and anxiety and sorrow in the woman's eyes, because there was no point in pretending like she didn't care about Regina. She did. In a way, she always had. Most of the time, she felt like she had to live up to everyone's standards and ideals of who and how she should be, but not Regina. With Regina, even though they argued most of the time, Emma always felt like she could truly just be herself, and though she often got roped into the overly dramatic views and actions of her parents, Emma never really saw Regina as evil. She'd said a lot of cruel things that implied otherwise, whether baited by Regina herself or simply trying to get a dig in for the sake of pissing the woman off, but they'd never been any more than surface deep. Emma didn't believe Regina was evil any more than she believed she herself was. She just saw a woman struggling to be the best she could be, and damn if she didn't admire that.

Emma stepped a bit closer, only a few short inches separating them now, and whispered even more quietly, "Forget everyone else, Regina. It's just you and me, and you know I'm not gonna judge you. Just tell me."

Regina let out a ragged sigh as she locked onto Emma's eyes and forced the rest of the world to disappear so that it was just the two of them. Her hands unbidden reached out and slipped into Emma's, unseen by the rest of the group thankfully, and she squeezed tightly to them as if they were the only things anchoring her to reality. "I…I'm afraid that Henry will never really love me," she whispered raggedly as new tears spilled forth.

Sorrow and affection ripped through Emma's heart as she squeezed Regina's hands and waited for her to continue. "I'm afraid," Regina whispered, "that he will never see me as his mother again. I'm afraid that no one will ever see me as anything but the Evil Queen, Emma. I feel like no matter what I do, no matter how many times I try to make things right, not even when I put my own life on the line, which I've done now several times for you, for Henry, and for the entire town, even for _Snow_, which let's face it, that last one wasn't easy…"

Both Emma and Regina chuckled lightly through their shared tears before Regina sucked in a shaky breath and said, "I feel like nothing will ever be good enough. _I _will never be good enough. I'll never be anything but a villain, no matter how good I manage to be, no matter how much I try to open myself back up to love and to family and to…everything. Your parents even toasted to Hook over one tiny good deed, completely overlooking the fact that he's part of the reason we're here in the first place, and yet I _voluntarily _sacrifice my life to save the town from the trigger that _he _helped activate, and still, I am nothing more than the Evil Queen; nothing more than a useful bit of magic whenever you all need it, but when you don't, you all just wish I would disappear. Don't you see…I'll always be denied. I'll always be rejected, even by my own son. You said it yourself…I'm a monster. That's what I'll always be, because no one will ever let me be anything else."

Regina cried heavily as she kept Emma's gaze even as they heard gasps echo behind them and the shout of triumph from Neal as the cage broke open with Regina's revealed secret. Emma and Regina seemed trapped in each other, unable to break their locked gazes until a hand slapped heavily down on Emma's shoulder, spinning her suddenly around and effectively breaking the spell. The blonde came face to face with the very man she'd just admitted she'd hoped was dead only to be quickly enveloped in a loving embrace. She hugged him back, saying nothing, her mind swimming only with the haunting image of Regina's tormented eyes, the despairing sound of her hopeless confession, and the telling tears that had carved scorching paths in her cheeks. It was all Emma could think about.

When Neal let her go, though, and the blonde quickly turned back around, Regina was gone.

* * *

Panic spilled through Emma's chest as she practically sprinted through the paths of the cave, calling out Regina's name only to be met with the sounds of her own voice in countless echoes. She could hear her parents, Neal, and Hook running along behind her as she shot for the entrance of the cave, desperate to get out of there and hopefully find Regina waiting for them. God, she so hoped she was.

"Honey, I'm sure that Regina is fine," Mary Margaret's panting voice sounded from behind her.

"You can't know that," Emma grunted out as they ran, annoyed at pretty much everyone though she couldn't figure out why. It was like she suddenly just wanted all of them to disappear and leave her alone to find Regina and maybe try to talk to the woman about the secret that she'd confessed.

Thankfully, only moments later, the mouth of the cave came into view, and Emma quickened her pace, spilling out of Echo Cave within seconds. She breathed rapidly, sucking in air as she spun in circles, eyes darting in all directions and searching for a very specific brunette. "Regina!" she called, hoping that this time she would receive an answer other than the sound of her own voice.

But there was nothing.

Emma's panic only increased with that revelation and she feared that Regina had run off and left them just as she had threatened to do earlier that day. _No, no, no, this isn't happening_, she thought to herself. "Regina, come on!" she shouted again, ignoring the looks she was receiving from the rest of the group, none of them able to understand why the blonde was so concerned with Regina's whereabouts. That only served to further anger Emma because it did nothing but prove Regina's point. Her words had meant nothing to any of them, and yet…they had meant everything to Emma.

"Regina, please, we need you!" Emma tried one last time, to which she received no answer, but she did hear a faint rustling of leaves to her left. She startled at the sound, whirling to face the lush forest green where she could just barely make out the bluish purple of a familiar blazer and the deep chocolate of hair she would recognize anywhere. Emma turned back to the rest of the group and said, "Stay here, or…hell, do whatever. I need to talk to her…_alone_."

She didn't wait for an answer before turning back around and sprinting over to where Regina was standing, half hidden by the shrubbery and hanging leaves of towering jungle trees. Emma grabbed Regina's hand and pulled her along as she kept walking, wanting to put some distance between them and the rest of the group. When she felt they'd walked a decent enough distance, she let go of the brunette's hand and whirled around to face her.

"I don't," she said, looking fiercely into Regina's eyes, eyes that only stared back at her with utter confusion and complete surrender.

"What?" Regina asked weakly.

Emma brought her hands up and gripped onto the brunette's shoulders as she shook her head, tears falling, and with conviction said, "I don't see you as the Evil Queen or as a villain or as just a useful bit of magic. I don't think you're a monster, Regina. I know I said that, but I was pissed and I felt like you were just trying to get a rise out of me. I don't really think that you're a monster, and Regina…I _don't_ wish you'd go away. If you want to know the truth, you're one of the only people who I pretty much _always_ wish would stick around."

"Emma, I am seriously on edge, so don't toy with me," Regina snapped, voice ragged from crying. "I don't have much fight left in me right now."

Emma's heart melted at the raw honesty in Regina's voice and words. She gripped the woman tighter and stepped just a bit closer to her. "I'm not toying with you. I'm serious," she told the former Mayor. "If you want to know another secret of mine…it's that I care about you. I do. Sometimes I try to tell myself that I don't, but I do. I care about what you think and how you feel, and to be perfectly honest, Regina, I feel sometimes like you're the only person I can ever be myself around. You don't make me feel like I have to be some perfect Savior or princess. I can just be me, and that means a lot more to me than I can say, you know?"

Regina didn't say anything, her eyes welling with tears again as she stood silent and completely captivated by Emma's eyes and her confession and her obvious sincerity.

"You're so much more than your past to me, Regina," Emma whispered then, taking another tiny step forward so that she and the brunette were suddenly sharing the same small and rapid breaths.

"Emma…" Regina breathed in a trembling sigh. "I…"

"I don't know why, Regina, but I'm always so drawn to you," the blonde confessed so quietly that Regina nearly had to strain to hear it. "It drives me crazy. I try to ignore it, but I always come back to you…and I never realized why until now."

"Why?" Regina asked in a timid whisper.

"I think you know."

"Emma…"

"Regina," Emma sighed as she leaned her head in, her lips less than an inch from Regina's tear-soaked and supple ones, their eyes wide and locked heavily on one another, "can I kiss you?"

The brunette closed her eyes tightly at that as several tears wrenched out from beneath her long, dark lashes and without a word, she took a stuttering breath and nodded. Before another breath could spill into her lungs, Emma's lips were on hers, soft and wet and warmer than the Neverland heat. It was exquisite and shocking and terrifying all at the same time, and yet Regina couldn't bring herself to put a stop to the dizzying, delightful madness.

Instead, she dove into it, desperate to fall further in and let the rest of the world be devoured by the moment, let the rest of the world simply disappear. She pressed more passionately into the blonde, her hands reaching forward and slipping around a toned waist to pull Emma's body flush against her own as their tongues tentatively touched and promised ecstasy. A quiet yet powerful moan escaped between their lips in a sigh, and neither woman knew who had produced it but neither cared. They were simply content to be lost in one another even if for only a moment and even if never again.

When they finally pulled apart, the need for air becoming a driving wedge between their swollen lips, they locked gazes once more and Emma whispered, "I hope you _do _open yourself up to love again, Regina."

"Because…_you _love me?" Regina asked timidly, her gaze dropping for only a moment before locking back with the blonde's. "Is that what you're saying here, Emma?"

"No, but I definitely _could_," Emma told her, placing a soft and simple kiss to her lips. "I definitely might."

Regina couldn't help the small smile that blossomed on her lips then as she brought a hand up to cup Emma's cheek and quietly reiterated, "I definitely might."


End file.
